Bonus Sunday

Welcome to Bonus Sunday. I hope everyone's 4th of July celebration was happy and safe, mine sure was.

From Tuesday's “Goin’ Quackers! This Summer at Disneyland” post, here is the complete mint Disneyland Guide for 1984.

Disneyland Guidebook 1984 (version 2) - 14mb






From 1984, this is a great soft cover book called "The Spirit of Disneyland". I think this was produced for cast member's, I haven't seen too many of these. Some of it is repeat stuff, there is a great Walt Disney quotes section at the end and lots more.

Today's post is a reprint from within this book of the original concept text that was used to sell Disneyland along with Herb Ryman's great concept art. It's fun to read this and realize some of the concepts were off base, but most of them were right on, and still work today. Enjoy...














The book is filled with lots of photos, none are in color, but some fun ones, here's a few.




Tomorrow; Its back to Knott's Mondays for part one of a two part comparison series.

Summer Scene 1971 & 2008

Happy Independence Day to everyone! I browsed thru my Disneyland collection for some 4th of July stuff, but I can up kind of short. Ok, I didn’t look thru everything, but it’s a holiday so I didn’t want to work too hard!

I did find this fun gate flyer celebrating Disneyland’s Summer Scene, July 4th thru the 10th, 1971.

Fun entertainment, plus of course, Fantasy in the Sky fireworks!







Today’s post is two posts in one, and will have to suffice until the blog returns on Bonus Sunday. I’m taking a day off.

Trip report from July 3, 2008:

Do you want to visit Disneyland in the summer and have no crowds? Do what I did; get to the park at 7:15am. It opens at 8:00am, I left at 10:00am. I got more done in two hours than the people who arrived at 10:00 will do all day! Big Thunder twice, Matterhorn 3 times, Haunted Mansion, Pirates, Casey Jr., breakfast at the River Belle, horseless carriage and I took a ton of photos!

Here is the newest “Your Guide to Disneyland.”

I have not looked closely at the maps recently, they seemed to be getting very cartoonish. Well, it’s still a cartoon, but it is kind of fun. I like the tea cups and story book area.






New stripes have been painted in the parking lot tram loading area. Hey, they are Red, White and Blue, maybe this was for the 4th of July!! Oh, maybe it’s because of the accident they had back in May.






The Yellow Horseless Carriage. Ken was a great driver, text book “perfect” cast member, Walt would be proud.






I got to sit up front and get a good look at the instrumentation. How fun, check out the speedometer, 120mph might be dangers without seat belts. It has 9,849.1 miles on it. Check out the Disneyland-Tigger key ring! And the little “counter” above it is at Zero because we were the first trip of the day. As soon as we took off, Ken clicked it 7 times, I was ½ expecting him to ask me for an “A” ticket. I was ready if he did, I had one! (Yes I always carry an old ticket book to the park with me, it’s like my ID and/or security blanket).





WOW, look how clean that glass is!






The red Horseless Carriage was in use also. Are these the originals?







These pictures were taken at about 8:45 am, the place is vacant for at least the 1st hour.






The Haunted Mansion was a complete walk on at 9:15am.






Big Thunder was a Zero line at 9:30-ish. I have determined this is my current favorite attraction at Disneyland. I see more things every time I ride it, isn’t that the way Walt wanted his attractions to be.






I recall reading comments on one of the blogs a while back about pealing off the sticker from the front of the Matterhorn Bobsled, looks like some has tried again. I hear next year we’ll see complete replacements of the Bobsleds. I’ve seen a photo of one, they look pretty neat






The New Red Monorail was humming around the rail, in fact, “It glides as softly as a cloud” and the old purple one is getting loud!






No guests on board of course, unless you want to be slow cooked! I hear there is no A/C in the middle sections and as you can see, the windows don’t open much!






It’s sure pretty, I hope they figure out a way to run it when its over 78 degrees outside! I asked the cast member who was guarding the entrance if “Red” was ready for guests. He said “very soon, we are just testing the communications computer”. No mention of the heat problem.

UPDATE: According to the LA Times, Monorail Red had its soft opening last night, I missed it by that much! (link).






“Three Fences” is doing well, in full bloom too I see.






Best 25¢ I spent all year. “I got no strings to hold me down”






Since I left at 10:00am, I got an entire tram to myself, ah the good life. I did see three FULL trams pass me going to the park. I am guessing it wasn’t going to be a light crowd for long.






This is my personal parking space at Disneyland. Well, not really, but I have parked here three times this year. If you get there early on certain days (busy ones?) they park the first group in the outside lot by the tram area. I think they recognize me now because last year they tried to put me on the end of a row and I asked for a better spot (my Mustang was brand new at the time). Now if I get lucky (like today) they wave me over and tell me I can park up front, SWEET!





Have a safe Independence Day everyone, Happy Birthday and god bless America.

Saga Magazine 1956 - Trapped in Disneyland

The magazine featured in yesterday’s Autopia post must have inspired countless kids to want to go to Disneyland even more than they already did. Today’s post is a fascinating article about a family that felt pressure from everywhere to take the kids to Disneyland.

From “Saga” magazines September 1956 issue, the article is titled “Trapped in Disneyland” It’s told from Dad’s perspective, his wife Irene seems to be on his side, the Kids; Steve and Andy are classically at odds with the parents.

This article is either a total put down of Disneyland or it's cutting edge 1956 comedy & sarcasm or possibly both, you be the judge. My favorite part is when dad gets upset because the Pirate Ship ride turned out to be a tuna restaurant! Enjoy…









I told you it was fascinating. I’m actually at the park today, my friends mother-in-law’s father’s cousin that used to work part-time as a janitor at Disneyland said it wont be crowded today…

A look at Autopia in print - 1955

By all accounts Autopia was an instant hit from the day Disneyland opened. Today’s post will feature two car enthusiast magazine’s from 1955 that demonstrate how popular the attraction became and how quickly it happened.

First up from October 1955 it's “Hot Rod” magazine. Hot Rod still arrives in my mailbox every month; it’s the grand daddy of car magazines. A classic cover, those little “Tailgate Torpedoes” look ready to take Peggy Sue to the Hop!






This article is fairly short at just two pages. However, this is just a few months after Disneyland opened. I bet this made every kid who read this magazine beg their parents to go to Disneyland.






Neat that Robert (Bob) Gurr gets proper credit for being in charge of the project.






Our second car magazine today is “Rod & Custom” from November 1955, this is a smaller sized magazine, about the size of the old TV Guides.






Rod & Custom dedicated more space for their Autopia article. In fact, there is a TON of information on the first generation cars in here, specs and all. There are some great rare photos too, they are Black & White and faded, but still fun to look at. Bob Gurr gets credit in this one too! As does Johnny Hartman and Hartman Engineering.








This last page has just the last two paragraphs of the Autopia article. Check out the “Christy’s Corner” article about fuel injection. It predicts the 1956 Ford Thunderbird and Cadillac El Dorado will have Fuel Injection, “The two are almost positive bets”, then it goes on to claim a “fair bet” that the Corvette will get Fuel Injection also for 1956. None of those came true in 1956. The Corvette did get optional Fuel Injection in 1957 and the 1957 Pontiac Bonneville got Standard Fuel Injection (I want one! Link), but the Eldorado would not get F.I. until 1976 (it was optional) and the Thunderbird would not get F.I. until the 1980’s!




******** UPDATE ******************

This just in from Major of at Gorilla’s Don’t Blog, from "Road and Track" September 1955. A single page article on the two month old Autopia! Thanks Major!

Goin' Quacker's This Summer at Disneyland - 1984

It time for “Goin’ Quackers! This Summer at Disneyland” July 1, thru July 7, 1984. It’s Donald’s 50th Birthday and Disneyland is throwing a huge celebration.






Neato surprise party with; cake, beverages, a hat and a button! Oh wait, it’s $1.50, still sounds like bargain, but shouldn’t the Mouse be taking care of the tab?






Lots-o-entertainment.





Donald snuck into Magic Journeys! I never saw this show, I thought it was on of those “red & blue glasses” 3D movies that gives me a headache. Come to think of it, Honey I Shrunk the Audience gave me a bad headache, but it wasn’t the 3D effect’s fault. (Someone at Disney owes me 15 minutes of my life for actually sitting thru that show)






The back has some glue from someone’s scrap book. Ah those cherished memories all nicely placed in a scrap book, only later to be torn out and sold piece by piece on EBay.






The cover of Your Souvenir Guide to Disneyland 1984. This is the second edition of the Guide for that year; the first edition had a nice photo of the castle on the front. This edition is obviously for Donald’s Birth Celebration.






The map. Notice the date code at the bottom right, 4/84 of course for April 1984. See the 2.5 next to it? I think this number represents the print count, in this case it 2.5 Million. It’s just a guess, but it makes sense. Comeback on Bonus Sunday for the entire guide.